Dubai: A patient and her husband are questioning the ethics of a hospital and its visiting surgeon when the surgeon refused to come in and conduct emergency surgery to remove her inflamed appendix.
Bhaghyasri R. Menon, a mother of two suffering from acute appendicitis, had to leave the private hospital and seek treatment elsewhere, because the on-call surgeon would not come in to perform the surgery.
She was referred to Belhoul Specialty Hospital on April 11, with suspected appendicitis by her family physician after she complained of abdominal pain in her right side.
"I couldn't sit because of the pain. At that time, I had no other thought but to go to hospital and undergo surgery," she said.
However, when she went to the hospital, staff there told her that the staff specialist general surgeon was on leave and that the replacement surgeon was "too busy to come in" and perform the surgery even after test results indicated that she had acute appendicitis.
Instead, the surgeon "told [the patient] to shift to a [nearby public] hospital," according to Menon's medical report. No reason was given for his refusal.
The surgeon's refusal outraged Menon and her husband, S. Sreekumar, who works as a commercial general manager at a shipping company. They called the surgeon's action contrary to medical ethics.
"Ethics require doctors to come in and see patients. Even at midnight, they're supposed to come in," she said.
S. Sreekumar, echoed his wife's statement.
"What if a rupture occurred? She would have died," he said.
He said he then took his wife to a private hospital in Karama, which performed the surgery after confirming the diagnosis. He added that he did not want his wife to go to a public hospital.
Gulf News spoke with staff at Belhoul Specialty Hospital, who defended the community surgeon's actions.
Dr Samir Yacout, head of the accident and emergency department at the hospital, said the surgeon did not come in because he was "busy with another patient" at an unknown hospital.
He said the surgeon was a community surgeon, contracted to perform surgical procedures at the hospital and others at one time, which he admitted left some patients at risk.
"The doctor is not always free to come. We told [Menon] because her case was urgent, we'd send her to the public hospital," he said.
"[Cases where a surgeon is needed in two places at the same time] do not happen often, but it happens," he added.
Dr Yacout also said that the surgeon informed the staff he would come by the hospital as soon as he was done with his patient.
But hospital staff said the couple would not listen when they tried to relay the message.
"We told her husband to wait while we worked out a solution but we failed to calm him down," said Dr Nagham Saeed, the attending physician on the night in question.
Gulf News also contacted the surgeon in question, who refused to comment.
The couple refuted the hospital's version, saying that hospital staff never said that the surgeon was coming in later.
Menon said she would not have minded waiting for the surgeon to come, as the hospital was fully equipped to take care of her case while she waited.
